GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called “unbearable” living conditions in the territory.
An AFP correspondent reported ongoing explosions from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, with a resident saying bodies were visible on the streets.
Israel’s military on Saturday said its operations were continuing in Shujaiya where fighting “above and below the ground” left a “large number” of militants dead.
A resurgence of fighting in the area comes months after Israel had declared the command structure of Hamas militants dismantled in northern Gaza.
Last Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of the war was winding down after almost nine months, but experts see a potentially prolonged next phase.
The Gaza war has also led to soaring tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, leading Iran on Saturday to warn of an “obliterating” war if Israel attacked Lebanon.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,834 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. It reported at least 69 deaths over the previous 48 hours.
Mohammed Harara, 30, said he and his family, young and old, felt as though they would become part of that toll.
He said they fled from their home in Shujaiya with nothing, “due to the bombardment by Israeli planes, tanks and drones” that they barely survived.
“We couldn’t carry anything from the house. We left the food, flour, canned goods, mattresses, and blankets,” Harara said.
Israel’s military on Friday said it was conducting “targeted raids” backed by air strikes against Hamas militants in the Shujaiya area.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that “about 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from the area this week.
AFPTV images on Saturday showed men moving belongings on a donkey cart. Some people were pushed in wheelchairs. Children walked with backpacks past piles of dusty debris.
“I saw a tank in front of the Shuhada mosque firing” at targets, said Abdelkareem Al-Mamluk. “There were martyrs in the street.”
On Friday Hamas and the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad both said they were fighting in Shujaiya.
Elsewhere in the coastal territory, the civil defense agency on Saturday said four bodies were pulled from an apartment after an Israeli strike in the central region.
Further south, in the Rafah area, witnesses reported dead and wounded after a new incursion by Israeli troops.
Tarek Qandeel, director of the medical center in Al-Maghazi, central Gaza, said the facility was seriously damaged in the bombing of a neighboring house, making it the latest Gaza medical facility affected by the war.
The United Nations, in a report on Friday that cited Gaza’s health ministry, said “about 70 percent of health infrastructure has been destroyed.”
Separately, a UN spokeswoman, Louise Wateridge, said by video-link that she had just returned to central Gaza after four weeks outside the territory.
“It’s really unbearable,” she said, describing a “significantly deteriorated” situation.
“There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food,” and people are returning to live in “empty shells” of buildings.
In the absence of bathrooms they are “relieving themselves anywhere they can,” Wateridge said.
The UN says most of Gaza’s population is displaced, but fallout from the war has also uprooted people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, where Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire.
Such exchanges have escalated this month, alongside bellicose rhetoric from both sides.
Israel’s military said plans for a Lebanon offensive had been “approved and validated,” prompting Hezbollah to respond that none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict.
In a post Saturday on social media, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said it “deems as psychological warfare” Israeli threats to “attack” Lebanon.
But it added such a move would lead to an “obliterating” war that could involve “all resistance fronts,” a reference to Iran-backed groups in the region.
Among those are Yemen’s Houthi militants, who have for months been targeting international shipping in the Red Sea area. The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
On Friday the Houthis claimed a “direct hit” on a tanker in the Red Sea but a maritime security agency run by Britain’s Royal Navy reported no damage.
The US Navy has retaliated against Houthi targets for such attacks, and on Friday the US military said its forces had destroyed seven drones and a control station vehicle in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen over the previous day.
Fighting for third day in north Gaza as thousands displaced
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Fighting for third day in north Gaza as thousands displaced
- Israel’s military on Saturday said its operations were continuing in Shujaiya where fighting “above and below the ground” left a “large number” of militants dead
- A resurgence of fighting in the area comes months after Israel had declared the command structure of Hamas militants dismantled in northern Gaza
Libya fully reopens major Ras Ajdir border crossing with Tunisia
- After calm returned to the region, the border crossing was partially reopened in mid-June
TRIPOLI: Libya’s interior minister in Tripoli said the major border crossing at Ras Ajdir with Tunisia was fully reopened on Monday three months after being shut due to armed clashes.
After calm returned to the region, the border crossing was partially reopened in mid-June though just for humanitarian and medical cases as well as special cases with permits from the Tunisian and Algerian interior ministries.
A number of ambulances from the Libyan side were seen heading into Tunisia during the reopening ceremony attended by the interior minister of Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, Emad Trabulsi, and his Tunisian counterpart Khaled Nouri.
“Two hours after this ceremony, Libyan citizens will be able to go to Tunisia,” Trabulsi told journalists at the crossing.
Nouri said the crossing had been “reopened for all activities except smuggling.”
Ras Ajdir is the main frontier crossing in Libya’s west, often used by Libyans to go to Tunisia for medical treatment and Tunisian traders moving goods in the opposite direction.
Libya has enjoyed little peace since a 2011 uprising and is split between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing each area. The GNU, which controls Tripoli and northwestern parts of Libya, is recognized internationally but not by the eastern-based parliament.
Trabulsi called on Libyans living near the western border to support regional security forces “in order to combat smuggling and illegal migration.”
He said Libya would open two new border crossings with Tunisia “if capabilities are provided.” Besides Ras Ajdir, the two countries have a minor crossing at Wazen-Dhehiba that has remained open.
Lebanon army receives additional $20 million from Qatar in support to troops
- Support comes at a crucial time, with the Israeli military and Hezbollah trading fire across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza war
BEIRUT: The Lebanese army has received an additional $20 million from Qatar in support of Lebanese troops, Lebanon’s state agency NNA said on Monday.
The support comes at a crucial time, with the Israeli military and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah trading fire across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza war. The Lebanese army is not involved in the hostilities but one Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli shelling in December.
A security source told Reuters that the new Qatari aid was a continuation of an earlier $60 million package announced in 2022 that was distributed in instalments to soldiers to support their salaries.
The source said $100 would be distributed to each soldier every month.
A five-year economic meltdown has slashed the value of the Lebanese pound against the dollar, driving down most soldiers’ wages to less than $100 per month.
The amount is barely enough to afford a basic subscription to a generator service that could offset the 22-hour cuts in the state electricity grid.
To supplement their low salaries, many troops have taken extra jobs and some have quit, raising concerns that the institution — one of few in Lebanon that can rally national pride and create unity across its fractured sectarian communities — could be fraying.
Gaza hospital chief among Palestinians freed by Israel
- Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November
- Successive raids have seen the hospital reduced to rubble since Oct. 7
JERUSALEM: Israel released the head of Gaza’s biggest hospital, who had been detained for more than seven months, among dozens of Palestinian prisoners returned Monday to the besieged territory for treatment.
His release was confirmed on social media by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and by a medical source inside the Gaza Strip.
Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November.
Successive raids have seen the hospital where he worked largely reduced to rubble since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
Salmiya and the other freed detainees crossed back into Gaza from Israel just east of Khan Younis, a medical source at the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir El-Balah said.
Five detainees were admitted to Al-Aqsa hospital and the others were sent to hospitals in Khan Younis, the source added.
An AFP correspondent at Deir El-Balah saw some detainees have emotional reunions with their families.
Israel’s military said it was “checking” reports about the prisoner release.
However, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir confirmed the release when he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Salmiya’s release “with dozens of other terrorists is security abandonment.”
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a cover for military operations and infrastructure.
The militant group, which has run the territory since 2007, denies the allegations.
In May, Palestinian rights groups said a senior Al-Shifa surgeon had died in an Israeli jail after being detained. Israel’s army said it was unaware of the death.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,877 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Turkiye arrests 67 after mob attacks Syrian properties
ISTANBUL: Turkish police were holding 67 people Monday after a mob went on the rampage in a central Anatolian city after a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.
A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday evening, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the latest bout of violence against Turkiye’s large community of Syrian refugees.
“No matter who they are, setting streets and people’s houses on fire is unacceptable,” he said, warning that hate speech should not be used for political gains.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Syrian national, identified only by his initials as I.A., was caught by Turkish citizens and delivered to the police.
Yerlikaya said on X that the Syrian man was suspected of harassing a Syrian girl, who was his relative.
He said Turks who gathered in the area acted “illegally” and in a manner “that does not suit our human values,” damaging houses, shops and cars belonging to Syrians.
Sixty-seven people were detained after the attacks, he said.
“Turkiye is a state of law and order. Our security forces continue their fight against all crimes and criminals today, as they did yesterday.”
In one of the videos a Turkish man was heard shouting: “We don’t want any more Syrians! We don’t want any more foreigners.”
Local authorities called for calm and revealed the victim was a five-year-old Syrian national.
Turkiye, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumors spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.
In August 2021, groups of men targeted businesses and homes occupied by Syrians in the capital Ankara, after a brawl which cost the life of a 18-year-old man.
The fate of Syrian refugees is also a burning issue in Turkish politics, with Erdogan’s opponents in last year’s election promising to send them back to Syria.
KSrelief treats thousands as health work continues in Yemen, Syria
- The dialysis center in Al-Ghaydah, in Yemen’s eastern province of Al-Mahra, treated 125 patients
RIYADH: A dialysis service by Saudi aid agency KSrelief treated scores of patients during May, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The dialysis center in Al-Ghaydah, in Yemen’s eastern province of Al-Mahra, treated 125 patients, including 53 who underwent a collective total of 441 scheduled kidney dialysis sessions and three emergency sessions.
Additionally, 75 patients were examined and received medical consultations at the center’s kidney disease clinic, said the report.
Of the total number of patients, 45 percent were male and 55 percent female. Residents made up 84 percent of those who were treated, while 1 percent were refugees and 15 percent were displaced.
Meanwhile KSrelief has continued to implement a project to enhance healthcare services for Syrian refugees and the host community in the town of Arsal, in Baalbek, Lebanon.
During May 2024, the Arsal Healthcare Center saw 12,789 patients who accessed services including clinics, pharmacy, laboratory, nursing, community health and psychological health programs.
The patients comprised 41 percent male and 59 percent female, with r
Some 41 percent of the patients were male and 59 percent female. Refugees made up 75 percent of the total, while the remaining 25 percent were residents.
